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Watchdog launches airports probe

By Miles Costello

June 30 2006, 1:00am, The Times

The owner of Heathrow and Gatwick airports is on red alert today after Britain’s number-two competition watchdog, the Office of Fair Trade, said it would press ahead with a probe into the UK market to establish whether it “works well for consumers”.

The decision by the OFT to embark on a full-scale probe into the airports market comes just over a month after it signalled that it was considering the idea.

At the time, the move came as a “complete surprise” to BAA, which owns Stansted, Heathrow, Gatwick and Southampton airports, among others, and was seen as a potential spanner in the works for its takeover by Grupo Ferrovial of Spain.

On the day, the OFT played down the potential probe, suggesting it was one…